Conversation
by Shuck
Summary: Baek tries to imagine what Jun would say if she could see her son now. Hwoa/Jin. Baek/Jun.


**Conversation**

**AN**: Just when I thought Tekken had left me alone to write my original works *sighs*

* * *

He'd always suspected it, but never voiced the questions that he knew would cause his student immense discomfort. He was a person whose heart was a well-guarded secret. From lonely streets and the sleazy intentions of adults, Hwoarang was the stony kind. Like some kind of cracked fortress were only a few people could ever seep through the cracks, Baek knew he was one of them, but all the same, he didn't dare pose the question.

So it came as only moderate surprise when Hwoarang asked him first.

"You ever been in love, Sabumnim?"

And Baek smiled, wider than he had probably ever smiled at anything Hwoarang had ever said and done. It was when he nodded that Hwoarang's face changed and it was less like embarrassment and more like fear.

"How can you tell?"

There's the memory of a quiet smile and the scent of brewing tea. A quiet reminiscence from long ago that sung contentment and companionship. He told Hwoarang this.

"Well...shit..."

And Baek, ever observant, saw how Hwoarang glanced away from where they stood in the hotel foyer of the fifth Iron Fist tournament, to watch the lone figure of Jin Kazama.

* * *

Maybe there wasn't much of their relationship that he could observe, but Baek found Hwoarang's boyish obsession with Jin a little amusing.

He is old-fashioned really; Hwoarang's less-than-stated interest in the Kazama youth has taken him by surprise. But his student struggled to even ask the question he had, never mind confess to it outright. Maybe there was something between the two boys and maybe there wasn't, but he thought there was some kind of_ fate_ in it, that of all the people to walk into his would-be son's life, it had to be Jin.

He observes from the park bench his student and rival, interacting about something or other. He sees Jin's smile, he notices how close Hwoarang leans in, and he imagines what _she_ would say, if she were sat beside him as she used to do in the past.

"I think you should be happy for him. He has hurt deeply in his youth, it's good he's finally opening up," she seems to say.

"But with _your son_? Don't you feel even a little apprehensive about that?" He replies.

She appears to smile and shrug, "Why should I be? I taught Jin to love, I taught him to follow what was true to his heart. If he feels the same way, then all the better for your Hwoarang."

Baek isn't so sure. He stares harder at Jin and Hwoarang; he can hear the rise of his student's voice but can't make out the words. When Hwoarang's hand slaps Jin's arm, he almost swears that his fingers linger there just a moment longer than they ought to have.

"They're both lonely Baek, without us," he imagines her white and forlorn beside him, "I love my son. I am sorry I can't be there to encourage his heart to open when I know it's so hard for him, but _you_ can do that. _You_ can do what I can't."

And he remembers Hwoarang's face as a child: struggling to breathe, to fight back tears after nightmares or to hide shame when he did wrong. He saw the adoration in eyes too young to be jaded and remembers those awkward attempts at comforting the elder when he failed to hold onto his own grief over the past. He could still see those eyes even now in that grown man, in that son of his who never stopped being so small inside.

"All he needs is your love and your acceptance," she seems to smile, he can feel the phantom warmth of her hand tracing his, "And I loved you for your strength, for your heart."

A heart as fluttering and frightened as Hwoarang's, he thinks. He actually turns away from the figures of Jin and Hwoarang to the empty space beside him and can for a moment, imagine her face.

"Thank you, Jun."

She smiles in his mind's eye. For a moment his heart swells with painful yearning, but Hwoarang's shouts pull him back from that nostalgic place and he has to smile when, as Jin saunters off, clearly ignoring whatever the redhead is getting at, Hwoarang turns to look directly at his master, as if hesitant and unsure.

Baek just nods back, as he is prone to do as his approval, and he does not fail to see the sparkle of joy that curls the corners of his student's eyes into a smile.


End file.
